Anime can seem daunting to the uninitiated with where the hell to start being one of the biggest questions. People will be overly eager to supply you with suggestions and/or tear down the opinions of others. The sheer volume of certain series can also create hesitance in would be watchers as they wonder when on earth they’ll possibly have the time.
Well, what better time than now to dig deep into anime that’s been on your Netflix queues for years. We’ve listed just 16 series that we highly recommend, some of which are personal favorites and all timers of shows period. People tend to still turn their nose down on animation even though some of the very best series of the past 20 or so years have come from animation/anime. Take a look at our favorites below and let us know what would’ve made your list.
Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day
Originally released in 2011, if you’re ready to cry buckets (and I mean buckets) of tears, look no further than the tender hearted but grief stricken The Flower We Saw That Day. After Menma dies in a tragic accident when she was in 6th grade, her group of friends drift apart. Five years later, the ghost of an older looking Menma appears to the group’s de facto leader Jinta and asks for her wish to be granted, saying she cannot go into the afterlife until it is accomplished and it will take the teamwork of their original friend group to make her mysterious wish come true. This anime is rife with empathetic character moments that see all of its main characters as deeply flawed individuals who all carried the weight of Menma’s death differently but with similar levels of impact, all remembering the day she died as a significant one. The show also hosts some of the best voice work in anime with such distinctiveness that it makes these characters feel all the more real, their pain all the more effective. Ending on a note of such visceral catharsis that it left this writer a (surprised) blubbering mess, its potency lays in the heart of the enduring power of childhood friendships. [Allyson Johnson]
Where to Watch: Netflix
Black Clover
I won’t lie to you, Black Clover is chock full of shonen anime cliches, with a main character that only speaks in high, shrill tones. People have called it “Naruto with magic,” and it’s hard to refute that assessment. Despite that, Black Clover is something special. The medieval setting and presence of a decent magic system gives this anime its own spark and personality.
In a land where magic is used for everything, Asta is born without magic while his brother, Yuno, excels in it. They both vie for the prestigious position of Wizard King and Asta will do anything to show that he’s not a joke. With over 100 episodes, Black Clover still remains entertaining because of its dynamic characters and exciting story arcs. [Yasmin Kleinbart]
Where to Watch: Hulu, Funimation, Crunchyroll
Carole & Tuesday
Shinichirō Watanabe is a name that most fans of modern anime will immediately recognize. He is credited for the creation of some of the most critically acclaimed shows within animation including Samurai Shampoo, Macross Plus, and Cowboy Bebop. His latest work is the stunningly intimate Carole & Tuesday, a show about two young girls who bond over their mutual appreciation for music. They experience the rise of fame, as well as finding authenticity in the creative process. This is a show for both fans of music anime like K-ON!!, but also lovers of slice of life shows will find something to enjoy. Watanabe’s signature attention to detail is present all-through Carole & Tuesday’s two seasons and hopefully, he will grant us another chance to experience life with these amazing cast of characters. [Mark Wesley]
Where to Watch: Netflix
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop needs no introduction to anime fans. It is widely considered to be one of the best anime of all time and over the course of 20 years has become a staple when it comes to the most influential anime. Shinichirō Watanabe’s masterful sci-fi western was a perfect culmination of style, music, and visuals. Flourishes of jazz and western music accompany this wild story of a group of bounty hunters looking for a chance to hit it big. The English dub, notably featuring Steve Blum as Spike, is one of the primary benefactors in the sub vs dub debate. It’s a legendary anime that, even now, will be remembered as one of the greats. [MW]
Where to Watch: Hulu
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba
There is no shortage of the type of series that Demon Slayer emulates, a Weekly Shonen Jump production where the storyline follows a young boy Tanjiro who becomes a demon slayer after his family is slaughtered and younger sister Nezuko turns into a demon herself. Where the story manages to differentiate itself from similar monster of the week series is in its eccentric and exciting artwork. Based on the magna written and illustrated by Koyoharu Gotōge, there’s a throughline of hopelessness in the world Tanjiro and Nezuko exists in that could easily overwhelm the story but while it’s undoubtedly bleak and unafraid to play with disturbing violence and body horror, the animation and the heroes optimism give it a needed levity. In a world crawling with depraved, blood thirsty demons, it’s not their violent urges that best captures the beauty the show has to offer, but the action that takes place when Tanjiro is able to wield his sword, the display of power being visualized in bursts of blue waves. Similarly effective is the lead’s emphatic tendencies as he often sees the tragedy of the demon’s lives before taking a final, lethal blow. There’s whimsy to this world of madness and it offers a striking, fairytale aesthetic to an unsettling story. [AJ]
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
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Dr. Stone
Bearing much resemblance to Avatar: The Last Airbender due to its thorough and extensive world building more than any of its other more familiar properties, Dr. Stone is an oddity amongst its peers. With a distinct and nearly off putting animation style that favors crude and blunt lines to the delicacy of its contemporaries, the series takes a post-apocalyptic story and breathes new life into it because of the titular characters main strength and interest: science. 3,700 years after a mysterious flash of light petrified the human population, teenage genius Senku Ishigami awakes to find the rest of the world eroded by time. With the help of his similarly woken friends they work to rebuild the world as they knew it. Deeply funny and surprisingly educational, the show is clinical more often than not but watch out for a flashback episode or two where we learn about Senku’s father and the emotional wallop it will level you with. Dr. Stone may not be as flashy as other post-apocalyptic titles but it, like it’s leading character, always manages to surprise viewers. [AJ]
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll, Funimation
Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The chronicles of the Elric Brothers in Fullmetal Alchemist are iconic for a generation, and for many teens of the early 00’s, was an essential gateway into what the world of anime was capable of bringing with exciting action, emotionally resonant storytelling and original science fiction. In this series, alchemy is a regularly practiced science that visualizes itself in a form of dark magic, with a lore surrounding a law of equivalent exchange. This law is abided by to create solid ground on which the characters abilities stand, but also a threshold with which the consequences of selfishness and villainy provide the series’ moral and ethical questioning. Edward and Alphonse Elric are orphaned as children when their father disappears and their mother dies, and in attempting to revive her from the dead, lose limb and body as penance for their mistake. It’s a cautionary tale about boys being forced to become men in a military state, conditioning for mistakes of the past, and questioning the genuine value of a human’s life. The lore of this world is accessible through it’s charming, and often funny cast of characters as they deal with underworlds of dark magic, government conspiracies, deep seeded systemic failures of society, and banding together to change things for the better. There are technically two series to watch on streaming: the 2003, 52 episode run before the manga was finished, and Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (2010) which follows the manga’s storyline nearly beat for beat. [Evan Griffin]
Where to Stream: Hulu, Crunchyroll
Given
There isn’t much you need to go before diving into the sweet and softly lit romantic anime about the fallout of trauma and finding new love. Based on a manga series written and illustrated by Natsuki Kizu, the series follows four students who form a rock band, despite the lead singers inexperience at the start. The crux of the series is on the characters Mafuyu and Ritsuka – a virtuoso guitar player- and their burgeoning, romantic relationship following the death of Mafuyu’s ex. Haruki and Akihiko form the rest of the band as the bassist and drummer respectively and while they don’t take center stage, their unaddressed flirtation and Akihiko’s past on and off again relationship also makes for some understated character drama that allows all four of the leads to feel fully formed at only eleven episodes. The music at the center – especially a climatic performance – is chill inducing as it breaks open everything we knew about some of the characters up until this point. With a follow up film that focuses on Haruki and Akihiko’s dynamic to be released on May 16th 2020, now is the perfect time to dive into this beautifully rendered anime about an unassuming and gentle romance between two high school boys, each looking for new parts of themselves. [AJ]
Where to watch : Crunchyroll
Haikyuu!!
One of the best sports anime around, Haikyuu!!’s magic lies in its ability to mimic the real life adrenaline of being a spectator in the stands of some big athletic event. We meet Hinata as he’s entering high school and looking to the join the schools team, only to realize he’s going to be working alongside his onetime rival, “King of the Court” Kageyama. That’s just the basic set up for the series though which, just having aired the first half of its fourth season this past January, is much more about the teams ever evolving dynamics and skills. Working beyond a potential nemesis relationship between the two leads swiftly and leading them into a respected if bickering friendship helps steer the show away from obvious cliches and the introduction of all of the characters, both team members and increasingly those opposing them, allows a rather self-contained world to steadily grow. The animation for the games highlight the athleticism that goes into the sport, never failing to rev up the excitement when the screen whooshes by for one of Hinata and Kageyama’s “fast attacks.” With line work that goes far to showcase the teams physicality, better to see the action of the sport itself, it doesn’t matter if volleyball has ever interested you or not, it’s impossible not to quickly become enamored with this team of “Fallen Crows.” [AJ]
Where to Watch: Netflix and Crunchyroll
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JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Before jumping into this anime, a friend asked me what she could expect from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I promptly told her, “do not expect anything. Just jump right in without asking questions.” There’s not really an easy way to describe Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. You can talk about the stands, the vibrant villains, its obsession with brutally killing dogs, or just which JoJo is better. This show is not afraid to go “there,” and whatever “there” is to you is up for interpretation. An evil baby stand user is forced to eat his own shit; a main character is turned into a child and has to dodge a pedophile villain; and that’s only one season!
Jojo is definitely not for everyone (the amount of animal deaths alone could turn some people away), but if you give it a chance, you will realize that there is nothing else like it. There is no end to creator Hirohiko Araki’s imagination, and the show’s brilliant art style perfectly meshes with his insane ideas. [YK]
Where to Watch: Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll
K-ON!
Pure cotton candy sweetness, K-ON! distinguishes itself with its steadfast focus on female friendship and the significance those friends make in a young girl’s life – especially when they’re coming together to create something they love. In the case of K-ON! it’s music as the anime follows four girls in their school’s Light Music club as they form a band and, more importantly, make memories together that will last a lifetime. Everything from the tinkling music to the cutesy voice overs and the delicacy of the character design implies this is a show of levity but it’s hardly hot air. Instead, it’s a poignant slice of life tale about four friends and their passions and how both shape their future. We should expect nothing less from the duo of director Naoko Yamada and writer Reiko Yoshida who collaborated on the superb A Silent Voice. [AJ]
Where to Watch: Netflix
Last Exile
In retro-futurist, vaguely European nation of Anatoray, teenage pilot Claus and his best friend and navigator Lavie work as freelance couriers in their small flying machine called a vanship. That sounds like a perfectly solid premise for an anime, but Last Exile moves to another within its first episode when Claus and Lavie deliver a mysterious girl to an aerial battleship and they stay there. Claus becomes one of their top pilots, and becomes entangled with an unusual rival and one of those classic anime way-to-complicated-political-power-structure plots. Throughout the series, however, it will jump back and forth through all those different modes. Last Exile often draws you in with one premise, but makes you stay even though another has introduced because that one is so intriguing and the story flows well into the other. Unlike many other anime, Last Exile is an original series not based on a manga. The series uses impressive but subtle CGI to convey aerial battleships and flying machines. Despite it relying heavily on CGI, it never detracts from the story or clashes strangely with the traditionally animated characters. The show is beautifully animated in its fascinating dieselpunk style, and boasts well-developed characters and intriguing plots. Although the show lays out a ton of mysteries despite its 26 episode run length, it does a good job at pacing the reveals. If you’re looking for a short, satisfying one-arc anime, Last Exile is a strong pick. [Ryan Gibbs]
Where to Watch: Hulu
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My Hero Academia
Plenty could argue about the shonen anime My Hero Academia and whether or not it is the series to currently jump into if you’ve never watched anime before -I’d argue it’s a perfect pick if you’re just getting started or if you’re a longtime fan.There’s no denying the intoxicating effect of My Hero Academia, a series that focuses itself on a teenagers plight to become the next ultimate hero in a world where the majority of the population is born with a “quirk,” a special ability that may or may not lead them down the path of heroics. It’s immensely entertaining from the very first episode, with colorful characters who increasingly enrich the world as time passes. As the stakes continue to rise with each passing season (and accompanying movies such as the superb Heroes Rising) so does our affection and commitment to these heroes in training as well as the adults who supervise them. The fight choreography is slick and kinetic, often packing an emotional wallop as well as a physical one in a show whose best action sequences are highlighted by character details we’ve picked up along the way – such as Deku’s determination and need to protect versus Bakugo’s need to win. The show is a necessary balm to trying times, excellent for a deep dive binge or a weekly escape, due it’s sincere prioritization of kindness and the persevering belief in being better and rising above your own limitations. [AJ]
Where to Watch: Hulu
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Neon Genesis Evangelion is the masterwork of Hideaki Anno. The show evolves from your typical mecha-style anime into a fully immersive universe that is rife with religious imagery and philosophical questions. Even 20+ years after its initial debut “Evangelion” has never lost its charm. For its time, the show was revolutionary for tackling mental health in such a real way. It was a subversion of the typical mecha tropes that dared to even discuss LGBT issues, even when it was considered taboo to do so. The recently released Netflix adaptation still retains all of the great moments for NGE veterans and newcomers alike. – [MW]
Where to Watch: Netflix
The Rising of the Shield Hero
As of the last few years, Japan has been pumping out Isekai anime like there’s no tomorrow with what feels like at least four different Isekai series in the past few seasons. One of those series was The Rising of the Shield Hero. On paper, it sounds like a typical isekai: otaku boy gets sent into a fantasy world and must save the world from impending doom. But once you dig deeper, Rise of the Shield Hero actually takes a pretty dark turn. After a false rape accusation in this world, Naofumi Ifatani is ostracized and left to fight on his own, but after picking up a few comrades of his own, he is ready to tackle whatever comes at him. The characters, beautiful animation, and banging opening song makes this anime series one to binge. [YK]
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime and Crunchyroll
Yuri On Ice
For a while, upon its initial release in 2016, there seemed to be no escape from the Yuri On Ice hype machine and years later, the resounding praise still holds true. From the central romantic relationship between Yuri and Viktor to the blistering characterization of would be antagonist Yurio who quickly becomes a main protagonist in his own right and the enthralling choreography of the skate routines themselves, Yuri on Ice is intoxicatingly addictive. If you aren’t immediately hooked by the audaciously bombastic opening number, then perhaps this show isn’t for you. But, if you’re one of those who can determine whether or not they’ll enjoy an anime based on the opening theme, then, well, Yuri On Ice might be the next go to if you haven’t so far. Clever in how is delivers its most biting and raunchy punchlines and disarmingly sweet in its care for the central romance, Yuri On Ice is over almost as quickly as it began with only twelve episodes, but you’d think it went on for many more due to how tightly it wraps itself around you. [AJ]
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
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